42,604 research outputs found
Three-axis adjustable loading structure
A three axis adjustable loading structure for testing the movable surfaces of aircraft by applying pressure, is described. The device has three electric drives where the wall angle, horizontal position, and vertical position of the test device can be rapidly and accurately positioned
Advanced grid authorisation using semantic technologies - AGAST
Collaborative research requires flexible and fine-grained access control, beyond the common all-or-nothing access based purely on authentication. Existing systems can be hard to use, and do not lend themselves naturally to federation. We present an access-control architecture which builds on RDFs natural strength as an integration framework, which uses RDF scavenged from X.509 certificates, and policies expressed as ontologies and SPARQL queries, to provide flexible and distributed access control. We describe initial implementations
Semantic security: specification and enforcement of semantic policies for security-driven collaborations
Collaborative research can often have demands on finer-grained security that go beyond the authentication-only paradigm as typified by many e-Infrastructure/Grid based solutions. Supporting finer-grained access control is often essential for domains where the specification and subsequent enforcement of authorization policies is needed. The clinical domain is one area in particular where this is so. However it is the case that existing security authorization solutions are fragile, inflexible and difficult to establish and maintain. As a result they often do not meet the needs of real world collaborations where robustness and flexibility of policy specification and enforcement, and ease of maintenance are essential. In this paper we present results of the JISC funded Advanced Grid Authorisation through Semantic Technologies (AGAST) project (www.nesc.ac.uk/hub/projects/agast) and show how semantic-based approaches to security policy specification and enforcement can address many of the limitations with existing security solutions. These are demonstrated into the clinical trials domain through the MRC funded Virtual Organisations for Trials and Epidemiological Studies (VOTES) project (www.nesc.ac.uk/hub/projects/votes) and the epidemiological domain through the JISC funded SeeGEO project (www.nesc.ac.uk/hub/projects/seegeo)
A quantum mechanical approach to establishing the magnetic field orientation from a maser Zeeman profile
Recent comparisons of magnetic field directions derived from maser Zeeman
splitting with those derived from continuum source rotation measures have
prompted new analysis of the propagation of the Zeeman split components, and
the inferred field orientation. In order to do this, we first review differing
electric field polarization conventions used in past studies. With these
clearly and consistently defined, we then show that for a given Zeeman
splitting spectrum, the magnetic field direction is fully determined and
predictable on theoretical grounds: when a magnetic field is oriented away from
the observer, the left-hand circular polarization is observed at higher
frequency and the right-hand polarization at lower frequency. This is
consistent with classical Lorentzian derivations. The consequent interpretation
of recent measurements then raises the possibility of a reversal between the
large-scale field (traced by rotation measures) and the small-scale field
(traced by maser Zeeman splitting).Comment: 10 pages, 5 Figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Beyond recurrent costs: an institutional analysis of the unsustainability of donor-supported reforms in agricultural extension
International donors have spent billions of dollars over the past four decades in developing and/or reforming the agricultural extension service delivery arrangements in developing countries. However, many of these reforms, supported through short-term projects, became unsustainable once aid funding had ceased. The unavailability of recurrent funding has predominantly been highlighted in the literature as the key reason for this undesirable outcome, while little has been written about institutional factors. The purpose of this article is to examine the usefulness of taking an institutional perspective in explaining the unsustainability of donor-supported extension reforms and derive lessons for improvement. Using a framework drawn from the school of institutionalism in a Bangladeshi case study, we have found that a reform becomes unsustainable because of poor demands for extension information and advice; missing, weak, incongruent, and perverse institutional frameworks governing the exchange of extension goods (services); and a lack of institutional learning and change during the reform process. Accordingly, we have argued that strategies for sustainable extension reforms should move beyond financial considerations and include such measures as making extension goods (services) more tangible and monetary in nature, commissioning in-depth studies to learn about local institutions, crafting new institutions and/or reforming the weak and perverse institutions prevailing in developing countries. We emphasize the need to address three categories of institutions ā regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive ā and call for an alignment among them. We further argue that, in order to be sustainable, a reform should take a systemic approach in institutional capacity building and, for this to be possible, adopt a long-term program approach, as opposed to a short-term project approach
Instant restore after a media failure
Media failures usually leave database systems unavailable for several hours
until recovery is complete, especially in applications with large devices and
high transaction volume. Previous work introduced a technique called
single-pass restore, which increases restore bandwidth and thus substantially
decreases time to repair. Instant restore goes further as it permits read/write
access to any data on a device undergoing restore--even data not yet
restored--by restoring individual data segments on demand. Thus, the restore
process is guided primarily by the needs of applications, and the observed mean
time to repair is effectively reduced from several hours to a few seconds.
This paper presents an implementation and evaluation of instant restore. The
technique is incrementally implemented on a system starting with the
traditional ARIES design for logging and recovery. Experiments show that the
transaction latency perceived after a media failure can be cut down to less
than a second and that the overhead imposed by the technique on normal
processing is minimal. The net effect is that a few "nines" of availability are
added to the system using simple and low-overhead software techniques
Tunneling study of cavity grade Nb: possible magnetic scattering at the surface
Tunneling spectroscopy was performed on Nb pieces prepared by the same
processes used to etch and clean superconducting radio frequency (SRF)
cavities. Air exposed, electropolished Nb exhibited a surface superconducting
gap delta=1.55 meV, characteristic of clean, bulk Nb. However the tunneling
density of states (DOS) was broadened significantly. The Nb pieces treated with
the same mild baking used to improve the Q-slope in SRF cavities, reveal a
sharper DOS. Good fits to the DOS were obtained using Shiba theory, suggesting
that magnetic scattering of quasiparticles is the origin of the gapless surface
superconductivity and a heretofore unrecognized contributor to the Q-slope
problem of Nb SRF cavities.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figure
Force dipoles and stable local defects on fluid vesicles
An exact description is provided of an almost spherical fluid vesicle with a
fixed area and a fixed enclosed volume locally deformed by external normal
forces bringing two nearby points on the surface together symmetrically. The
conformal invariance of the two-dimensional bending energy is used to identify
the distribution of energy as well as the stress established in the vesicle.
While these states are local minima of the energy, this energy is degenerate;
there is a zero mode in the energy fluctuation spectrum, associated with area
and volume preserving conformal transformations, which breaks the symmetry
between the two points. The volume constraint fixes the distance , measured
along the surface, between the two points; if it is relaxed, a second zero mode
appears, reflecting the independence of the energy on ; in the absence of
this constraint a pathway opens for the membrane to slip out of the defect.
Logarithmic curvature singularities in the surface geometry at the points of
contact signal the presence of external forces. The magnitude of these forces
varies inversely with and so diverges as the points merge; the
corresponding torques vanish in these defects. The geometry behaves near each
of the singularities as a biharmonic monopole, in the region between them as a
surface of constant mean curvature, and in distant regions as a biharmonic
quadrupole. Comparison of the distribution of stress with the quadratic
approximation in the height functions points to shortcomings of the latter
representation. Radial tension is accompanied by lateral compression, both near
the singularities and far away, with a crossover from tension to compression
occurring in the region between them.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figure
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